Tree Danger From September Storm Still An Issue In Queens Nabe

A large limb dangles precariously from tree on Cooper Ave. in Glendale. Neighborhood resident Michael O'Kane said he has complained about the hanging branches along Cooper Ave. to a bevy of elected officials. "They have been there since the microburst. I park between the trees. People walk their dogs over there all time and I don't think they are aware of the risk." (Photo:Farriella/NY Daily News)

Queens

It took millions of dollars and thousands of hours to clean up broken trees and other debris left by the September tornado and storm that ravaged parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

But some remnants of that so-called microburst still sit, perched precariously high up in trees along sections of Middle Village and Glendale, according to the New York Daily News.

They are hanging branches, and some residents are worried they could come crashing down on cars and pedestrians on Cooper Ave.

"Cooper seems to be the forgotten block," said Robert Holden of the Juniper Park Civic Association.

"There are these huge branches hanging over the sidewalk. I wouldn't park my car on that street. All you need is one strong wind."

After spotting at least eight trees with broken limbs, Holden wrote to Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and asked her to look into the problem.

He even offered to have his civic group compile a list of potentially dangerous trees.

Read More:

Peril still lurks above Queens neighborhoods damaged by tornados, microburst

New York Daily News - December 1, 2010 - By Lisa L. Colangelo

Parks Department Refuses To Reveal Amount Of Carousel Donation

The City's Parks Department has refused to reveal the amount of the donation made in connection with filming last week by 20th Century-Fox in Forest Park. The "significant donation," - said to be $ 5,000 - was made for allowing filming including inside the Park's shuttered historic carousel. Advocates fighting to get the carousel reopened want the funds to be used towards that purpose but parks officials have other plans for it.

Queens

LOCAL residents are calling on city parks officials to earmark donated cash from a Forest Park film shoot for the shuttered, historic carousel, according to the New York Daily News.

Crews filming the "The Sitter" took over the park and the carousel in recent weeks to shoot scenes for the comedy.

A spokesman for 20th Century Fox, the film's production company, said it made a "substantial" donation to Forest Park.

Both the film company and the Parks Department have refused to disclose the amount.

The carousel, called priceless by experts, has been closed for two years while the Parks Department searches for someone interested in operating it as a concession. It was crafted more than 100 years ago by Daniel Carl Muller, considered a master woodcarver of the genre.

"Our kids deserve the chance to enjoy our carousel, not just some Hollywood celebrities," said Ed Wendell of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association. "That's why we're calling for every penny of that generous donation to be allocated to the restoration and reopening of the carousel."

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski pointed out that the crews also filmed at other locations in the park.

"I understand people's concerns for the carousel, but that donation is for use of the park," she said. "The movie crews did some cleaning and repair work to the carousel and the concession stand. You have to consider that an in-kind donation.

"There must be transparency and accountability with these donations," said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, a watchdog group. "Unfortunately, that is not happening."

Read More:

Reining in carousel cash Call to get all of gift to park

New York Daily News - November 16, 2010 - By Lisa L. Colangelo

Shuttered Carousel In Forest Park Temporarily "Opened"

A Walk In The Park - November 3, 2010

Rockaway Beach Erosion Restoration Under-Funded

Rockaway beaches are facing rocky times, as inadequate funding could affect the areas most severely hit by recent storms, according to the Queens Courier.

According to Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, the East Rockaway Inlet is dredged every two years to make it more accessible for boats. The sand is then deposited on the peninsula’s beaches, from Beach 26th and Beach 38th Streets. However, due to the recent Nor’easters beginning last November, there was a need for sand between Beach 80th and 110th Streets.

“This past year we lost a lot of sand in higher numbers like the 90s to lower 100s, so we reached out to the Army Corps [of Engineers] and asked them to consider putting it [the sand] there rather than in the 30s, which didn’t really lose sand,” Lewandowski said.

Read More:

More erosion = more money at Rockaway beaches

The Queens Courier -  March 2, 2010 - BY ALEXA MAE ASPERIN

Community Boards Not Happy With Ridgewood Reservoir Plans

QUEENS/BROOKLYN

by Holly Tsang

The Queens Ledger   

January 6, 2010 

On Monday, members of Queens and Brooklyn Community Boards 5 and Queens Community Board 9 were presented with the Parks Department’s plans for phase one of a new park at the Ridgewood Reservoir, which straddles Queens and Brooklyn, and they were not happy, according an article in the Queens Ledger.

CB5Q submitted its recommendations in July consisting of seven points that needed to be addressed, including the construction of a six-foot wrought iron fence with spikes at the top to deter trespassers and the construction of a pedestrian bridge that goes over high-traffic Vermont Place to the reservoir.

Much to the dismay of CB5Q, the Queens Borough [Parks] Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski wrote back in August that the Parks Department would likely take a different direction on most of the points; to name a few, the wrought iron fence in question would be four feet tall and instead of a “cost-prohibitive” pedestrian bridge over Vermont Place, an ADA-approved ramp would be constructed at Vermont Place, where a stop sign would also be installed.

Read More:

Community boards not happy with Ridgewood Reservoir plans

The Queens Ledger -  January 6, 2010 - by Holly Tsang

With some back and forth, Queens park will get upgrade

NY Daily News - January 6, 2010 - By Lisa Colangelo

Background: 

Preservationists at odds with city over ballfields in Ridgewood Reservoir 

NY Daily News - May 22, 2009 - By John Lauinger

Forest fans howl over plans to raze 20 acres in Ridgewood Reservoir

NY Daily News - October 21, 2007 - By John Lauinger

Ridgewood Reservoir plans move forward | 5 months ago

Reservoir plans move forward | 5 months ago

Inside the Ridgewood Reservoir | 6 months ago

Jumping in to the Ridgewood Reservoir Plan 

Cunningham Park Land Grab: Residents Wait "Decades" for Parks to Act

QUEENS

The DPR recently sent 47 letters to Queens homeowners whose property illegally encroaches Cunningham Park. The property owners were ordered to immediately remove fences and all obstructions. They have thirty days to comply.  This comes almost a year and a half after (see Daily News story below) these revelations were made public.  Fox 5's John Deutzman does a follow up from his story in July.

Parkland Grab, Part 2

Updated: Friday, 20 Nov 2009, 2:29 PM EST

Published : Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008, 8:10 PM EDT

MYFOXNY.COM - Some homeowners are being ordered to give huge chunks of their backyards back to New York City. It's a story Fox 5's John Deutzman broke in July, and he says some people are having a hard time facing the reality that it wasn't their land in the first place. The Parks Department admits it should have noticed this problem sooner. The department received a tip and started an investigation.

Fences make bad neighbors.  City to warn Oakland Gdns. homes that encroach on trail 

New York Daily News - July 20, 2008 -  By Barry Paddock 

Caption: Homeowner at Vanderbilt Pkwy. and 217th St. has a backyard fence that may extend out onto a city-owned nature trail. Photo by Frank Koester

HOMEOWNERS in Oakland Gardens lucky enough to have properties that flow into a city-owned nature trail with a colorful history may be forced to rein in their expansive backyards.

The Parks Department believes the yards - some boasting swimming pools, tool sheds and jungle gyms - may cross property lines and encroach on the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway.

Results of a land survey of the area ordered by Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski are due this week.

The parkway, one of the country's first concrete roads, is now a pedestrian and bicycle trail that emerges from Cunningham Park. A narrow strip of woodland runs alongside it.

"Anyone who takes that away takes away natural beauty from the park," said Lewandowski.

The city Law Department will send letters to homeowners found to be over the limit, she said, and they will have 30 days to respond in writing.

Park advocates support the move.

"They've fenced off property that's not theirs," said Marc Haken, president of Friends of Cunningham Park, which has raised money to preserve the parkway.

"They saw what their neighbors did and they took a little more and a little more," Haken said. "You've heard that saying, 'I give you a finger and you take it all the way up to my shoulder?' "

The survey examines some 45 homes along Richland and Kingsbury Aves., tree-lined residential streets next to the parkway.

"I don't know where the [property] lines are," said a homeowner on Kingsbury Ave., who declined to give her name. Her backyard fence extends farther into the parkway than most on her block.

She said she has lived by the parkway for more than 25 years and couldn't remember if the metal fence had already been there when she moved in.

Some residents, confident their yards are within property lines, criticized their neighbors.

"I ride my bike on the path all the time," said Michael Cohen, 55, an advertising creative director. "That someone encroaches on the parkland - that p----- me off."

Community Board 11's district manager has mixed feelings about the survey. Susan Seinfeld said residents call to complain of litter along the parkway, not encroachment. "If these people are keeping it nicer, that's a plus," she said of the homeowners. "Fences are another story."

The parkway is a remnant of the Long Island Motorway, the first highway to use overpasses to avoid intersections. Created by William Vanderbilt Jr.,  it ran 45 miles from Queens into Long Island.

Vanderbilt envisioned an auto raceway and a quick route for wealthy New Yorkers to their Long Island estates. Prohibition-era bootleggers used the route to escape police, earning it the nickname Rum Runners Road.

Robert Moses forced the private toll road out of business in the 1930s by creating the Northern State Parkway, and reopened the motor parkway as a path for pedestrians. In 2002, the Queens portion was added to the New York State Register of Historic Places. It is now part of the 40-mile Brooklyn-Queens Greenway.

After receiving a complaint from an avid user of the parkway this year about intruding fences, Lewandowski, a Queens native and veteran of the Parks Department of more than 25 years, ordered the survey.

"It may be small in terms of acres," she said of the disputed land, "but it's just not a good precedent for people to expand their property."

 

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